BACKGROUND
On December 10, the San Diego City Council voted to increase the Workforce Housing Offset, also known as the Linkage Fee. This is a direct tax on job creation – a jobs tax – charged to ALL new commercial construction projects. Every commercial use, including non-profits, hospitals, restaurants, hotels and offices, are charged on a square foot basis. The City Council increased this tax by 350 to 750 percent, depending on the type of use. To protect San Diego job creators and working families, a JOBS Coalition of small and large businesses has launched a referendum to STOP THE JOBS TAX.

WHY WE NEED TO REPEAL THIS MASSIVE TAX INCREASE:
· It hurts the local economy, kills business expansion and jobs and drives businesses to other cities. The impact to an individual business could be thousands – if not millions – of dollars.

· It puts San Diego at a competitive disadvantage. San Diego is the ONLY city in the county that charges this tax. In addition, many cities San Diego competes with across the country for new jobs do not charge this tax.

· The jobs tax also is a “zombie tax” because it will continue toautomatically increase year after year without any review or approval by elected officials.

· While its impact on jobs is devastating, it will not produce a significant number of new subsidized housing units. Best-case projections call for 100 new units a year; San Diego has 45,000 families waiting for subsidized housing. It’s time to find real solutions. The financial impact is shown below: